501.BC/5–2946: Telegram
The United States Representative at the United Nations (Stettinius) to the Secretary of State
priority
[Received 7:25 p.m.]
257. From Herschel Johnson. Reference Department’s 81, May 28.85 I called with Hayden Raynor this afternoon on Sir Alexander Cadogan and gave him a brief summary of the Department’s views regarding admission of new members to the United Nations. I referred to the statement he had made yesterday to Mr. Stettinius that he felt it imperative for this situation to be canvassed between us at an early date and said that we had the same view.86 I told him that our long-term objective is membership for all qualified states and our short-term aim to obtain admission this year of as many as possible of those states now eligible. These states we had classified as follows: (A) All the neutrals except Spain; (B) The states which might be termed the victims of aggression and states which were co-belligerents. I then went over in detail the views on individual states contained in a memorandum from the Department which was brought by Raynor.
Cadogan was obviously in general agreement on the procedures we suggested and also as to our views on the specific countries. He seemed surprised at first that our support on Eire would not be all out as in the case of other neutrals but after I had repeated that we had every intention of voting in favor of an application by Eire, he replied that their position might be very close to ours. He gave no indication that Eire would have active British support. In the informal talks which we might have in certain capitals along lines suggested in the Department’s memorandum Cadogan thought it would be desirable for us to concert our action and he suggested that we might not be able to get through the entire catalog of states and that it would be useful to work out a schedule of priority. He said that the possibility of an application by Italy had not been mentioned to him by London but he reacted favorably to our suggestion and seemed to feel there might be a good chance of having an application from Italy accepted. On Portugal he expressed the opinion that the British would wish to take the lead in that country but stated very definitely that they would like our support. He will telegraph tonight a summary of [Page 392] our views as to procedure and our views insofar as they are now clarified on individual countries.
Before going to see Cadogan I had gone over the Department’s memorandum carefully with Raynor and the Department’s views as expressed in the memorandum were followed closely. Sir Alexander Cadogan understood that these views were, although representing official opinion, put forward on this occasion on an informal basis.
- Not printed (501.BC/5–246); it informed the Delegation that Mr. Raynor was carrying to New York the “full views” of the Department on the membership question, a reference to the Departmental memorandum of May 28.↩
- This information had been conveyed to the Department in telegram 250, May 29, 2:30 p.m., (501.BC/5–2946).↩